The Continental

I am trying to understand some peoples reviews about this bar and can’t. One talks about how he is afraid of the area, what? Obviously a lincoln park dude that goes to sports bars! It’s the city dude, even wicker park isn’t safe. Then people bitch about the noise of drunk people outside late. Maybe you shouldn’t move next to a late night bar if your worried about the noise! They had to get signatures from everyone in the area to be open till 4:00 and they did. Stop your whining!
I love dive bars with good music and the continental is a prime example. The back patio in the summer is a great spot to chill out too, it’s really cozy. And for the reviewer that speaks about them telling them to leave right before closing, that is because they have to by law. they have to start getting people out of there before 4:00, they are trying to heard a bar of drunk people so they can’t start at 4:00. I always have a good time here and the staff is super friendly. When they are not crazy busy, the bartender Craig will make you some of the best cocktails you have ever had and he is hot too!!! So, if you like a dark dive bar with a good vibe check it out, but go early if you don’t like crowds, it gets really busy late night. Go early and get a great cocktail and listen to some good music.

Lot’s of fun with a very friendly staff and a ton of room to find your vibe. The bar is good for meeting people, but you can also go upstairs for a quiet and intimate space to talk. The back patio is also a nice spot.

Fuck this place. Went there at at 2 am. Mind you they close at 4am. Front door guy comes to my table at 3:45am and yells at my table «get up get the fuck up time to go» I’m like «dude chill you close in 10 – 15 mins chill I’m finishing my drink» he’s like «don’t tell me to fucking chill get the fuck up NOW» also I’m a woman. He’s yelling at me hard at this point so I slide my drink at him and I get up from my seat along with my friends and he’s putting his hands on me pushing me and grabbing me hard as fuck. People are pushing him away from me trying to protect me from this crazy fuck. Then he throws my phone in the middle of the fucking road. All I have to say is that I’m fucking shocked. I’ve never been to a establishment where they put hands on a woman and threw my phone in the middle of a fucking road and broke it, kicked us out before closing, couldn’t finish our drinks. This place is sad. The staff sucks. Don’t go here. Nothing but rude losers. Still shocked. Completely destroyed my night.

Rowdy music, raucous crowd, and damn fine drinks. Pool table on second floor. A lil unaffiliated taco truck parks curbside during the warmer months. Go.

Best thing about this place is that it is a late night option. Drinks are good, but can’t screw up a gin and tonic or a beer. No food here, just booze. Ambiance is cool and quaint. It is very dark inside, upstairs has a couple of pool tables. Décor is pretty nice.
It is a good corner bar for what it is.

alright, so i just got home from yet another visit to the continental and their door dude needs to get a shout out for being one of the best in chicago — i think his name is matt? raspy voice, you know the one. he controls riled up drunks like no other and makes sure things are taken care of before anything violent occurs, and he has a sense of humor when dealing with drunk girls while still keeping an eye on the ones around him (including my inebriated butt on more than one occasion) when the 4 am vag-​vultures start to circle. he’s awesome and more memorable than any of their bartenders.
also, seriously, the review from 8÷8÷14 is one of the most classist, sexist, privileged, date-​rape-​y reviews i’ve ever read and indicates a way worse attitude than most of the people who end up at continental. accordingly, you can rest easy knowing the douchitude level of continental goers will never be as bad as that of — in the language of the chil’ren — continental haterz.

I don’t know what’s worse about this place. The fact that upon exit or entrance I may be shot, beaten, and/​or robbed, or the fact that upon entrance I will inevitably brush up on hundreds of smelly, poorly-​dressed hipsters? I still don’t get the irony of putting shitty hipster dive bars on the edge of crime-​ridden neighborhoods. Is it ironic or are the people who go here just poor?
I was dragged here by a friend who fancies hipster women and has a trick for picking them up. Quickly, I realized I do not share his fancy and will never return! However, if there was a 1.5 star option, I would use it on this joint (for which I have a nickname I cannot share on Unilocal…). It is MUCH better than the horror you’d find at the Shambles. Unilocal needs install a zero star option for that miserable cesspool of a bar.
Although their neighbors at Feed make some mean friend chicken & okra!

Your bar is seriously pissing me off!!! It’s 3:40 am, i have all windows closed, but still can’t sleep, because there is like 20 drunk assholes outside your bar yelling soo soo loud!!! Come on, people, have some respect! This neighborhood is quiet, but your bar is awful! No respect, no understanding that people around need rest at 4 am! Aren’t you supposed to do something about it???

just one drink… i swear.
:blackout:
:nekkediness:
:slurred speech:
:wooooooooooooooooooooohoooooooooooo:
and that’s all she wrote.
once the malort makes an appearance, say goodbye to a 6am wake up call.

I tried to call your phone # but there’s no voice message so I’m leaving a message here. I live close to your bar and every night there are drunk people yelling and shouting until 4am. and you do nothing to control people outside your establishment. Every time it happens and you do nothing I will call the police and let them deal with your establishment for disturbing the peace. By city ordinance and being a good business you need to control the sound level outside your establishment.

This is one of those «oh, let’s have just one more» kind of place. Terrific, friendly bartender and GREAT music selection. Love this place, and will return.

I really don’t like this bar.
It’s open very late.
That’s it: that’s not just the single positive, that’s about the only animating force I can imagine impelling a person to patronize this place.
The location is sort of shitty. The crowd is much shittier. The space itself is pretty terrible, and – since it’s one of *those* post-2:00am joints – there is usually never any space inside the space anyways.
So: you travel somewhat out of your orbit, cram into a shitty space with shitty people to drink passable beer (or pay a bit too much for less-​than-​passable liquor selections), all for the otherwise-​mild pleasure of an extra two hours of drinking outside of somebody’s house.
I’ve been several times; I’ve never felt good about the decision before, during, or afterwards. But it’s one of *those* post-2:00am joints, so one ends up there, from time to time. The problem is: even in that context, it doesn’t really rate favorably.

If you’re looking for a crap fest then this is the bar for you. Open late for those who don’t want the night to end. The DJ’s can be pretty rad… definitely good taste in music on most nights. Check it out early for a better experience.

if you’re here at 1a, you are WAY early. you gotta stumble in around 230−3a at the earliest. people are besides themselves at that point, so if you don’t even know who you are, what happened 5 minutes ago, where your phone is or what part of the city you’re in, you’re in the right place.
i’ve had those nights where you just want to keep going out. you could go on forever. i’d say this place could definitely be on the list of blurry places to visit. the service is deece, the people are okay, no bigs. there are 2 floors, top floor has the pool table. this is a neighborhood joint for me, so i’d totally come back.

This bar is like a light that attracts mosquitos. They’re open til 4 and it’s in a questionable area of Humboldt Park so you better bet it’s a shit show when the regular bars close.
Maybe it was the alcohol (probably) but I recall having a good time here. I have a few fond memories of this bar specifically because I went here on a couple dates and ended up slobbering all over the person who I now refer to as my significant other.

Come drink here. Bring the worst person you know and a cowboy hat.
After 6 drinks, she still won’t be the biggest bitch in the room wearing a cowboy hat.
I’ll be across the street, pointing and laughing.

I went here in the wee hours of the night with a friend and everything I heard about the place smelling like wet toilet paper was true. You walk in and the first thing you think of is, damn, is there a sewer leak somewhere. The place was packed in the post 2am glow and there were people mainly dancing with themselves in the tiny dance floor area. Now, most bars I have been to that are open past 2 tend to get more and more packed as you get deeper into the morning. There is a 20-​something vibe to the place, and a hipster cold shoulder to it.
OK, so why go? They are open. I have other 4 am and 5 am bars I like much more than this place to be sure, but there was one thing I found worth paying attention to.
The bartender. She was an amazingly attractive Midwestern blond girl and I felt the need to create a bio for her. As we imagined our bartender coming in from some farm town in Iowa, Indiana, or Ohio and leaving behind a guy named Jake, we also wondered why we were here being mainly sober at 2:30 am, I realized, that other than perhaps the prettiest bartender in the West of West Town Humboldt Park area, there was little to keep us here not being all that drunk and not being 25.
Perhaps it is better at 5 pm? Or perhaps at 5pm people are sober, and there is in fact raw sewage coming up through the floor boards?
However, I always say something nice. If you are in the area, and in need of drink after two, why not?

Drunken hipsters crowding on a dancefloor the size of a postage stamp, while they to make out with girls that are thinking «he looks pretty good for an off-​night», elbow to elbow, getting beer baths with each bump. I’m getting too old for this.
And all that was before 1am! Okay, service was pretty good for being so crowded, cheers, bartender! But next time we’re out, kick this ass for a man, and tell me to go home. Thank you for being a friend!

When you’re out and you’ve been drinking and that little voice in your head says, «Continental? That sounds like a great idea!»
Don’t listen to that little voice, in fact make sure that voice boogies out of your head. The Continental is never a great idea.

I can’t hate on The Continental. It provides a very important service to us West Siders: Keeping the drinks flowing until 5am on Saturday nights. One can NEVER underestimate or under appreciate the need for this service.
So The Continental… It’s very dark. The drinks are strong. The people are, well, mostly drunk hipsters that desperately want to make out with someone. Chances are if you’re at The Continental at 4am, you probably want to make out with someone, too, so don’t judge, okay?